Monday, June 12, 2017

Romania, Romania, the song, and pastrami and food from Romania

Problem
Is there a song about Romania?

Answer
Yes. but not in England. Nor Romanian.

Story
I asked a friend who directs a choir if he knew a song about Romania. He immediately sang 'Roumania, Roumania!' and sent me a link to the song.

It is not in Romanian but in Yiddish. it was written and performed between WWI and WWII by the songwriter. You can see it on YouTube.

Another version is a later adaption by the Barry Sisters, who were very popular in their day, performing and on radio. You can see them performing the song on YouTube.

I also found a translation of the words from the Yiddish into English. The comments include lots of discussion about the meanings of the words and the recipes. The humorous song describes various foods from Romania, and wine.

The foods mentioned in the song and discussed include
cheese
eggplant
ladies' fingers
polenta

The drinks include
Romanian red wine

Pastrami
Romanian immigrants to New York took with them a recipe for beef, served as thin slices. The name for this dish developed into the word pastrami. The cook/chef in my family says he researched the difference between pastrami and salt beef and the ingredients are the same. Salt beef is succulent and thick often with an edging of fat. Pastrami is usually drier and flat as, well, ham.

Tips
1 The best video visually is by Moshe Shulhof. Expand it to full screen so you can see him dancing, miming, lifting his glass of wine, and using the full stage.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YeCALnm4ljo

2 Aaron Lebedeff - Roumania Roumania (1947)

3 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YcUZ-K9NoAM&feature=youtu.be by Dudu Fisher

4 Klezmer Conservatory Band (with a woman's voice against a visual of an old map of Roumania).
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aeJGN9wUn5o

Here are the lyrics, in Yiddish written in Hebrew, then in transliteration, then translated into English.
https://yiddishlyrics.wordpress.com/2010/12/26/rumania-rumania-רומייניע-רומייניע/

Author
Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, author and speaker.

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